Campaigners calling for ban on lorries after crash on Shropshire country lane
A campaign has been launched to stop lorries using a country lane near Bridgnorth after an accident blocked the road for a day.
Cranes had to be used to remove the lorry after it overturned in Upton Cressett Lane while delivering grain to a nearby farm.
Campaigners who have been lobbying Shropshire Council for two years to stop HGVs using the lane fear a more serious incident could happen if no action is taken.
William Cash, who owns the nearby Upton Cressett Hall, said: "We have been warning for years there would be a dangerous accident on the road as the very steep lane, with a one in four gradient, is wholly unsuitable for HGV lorries.
"The giant lorry was upturned and completely blocked the road for a very long period of time whilst cranes worked through the night and much of the day to try and clear the road and remove the lorry."
Mr Cash said he believed the incident showed the lanes would not be suitable to transport material for two wind turbines at Criddon, Upton Cressett, which he said would involve huge industrial lorries having to drive up similar lanes.
He said: "The lorry not only overturned but careered backwards down the steep hill and could very easily have killed anybody in cars behind. Luckily there weren't any but it is absolutely extraordinary the council has not done anything in regards to preventing wholly unsuitable lorries from driving up the narrow and treacherous bank."
Campaigners who fought against plans for an industrial pig farm on nearby land, commissioned a transport report which Mr Cash said concluded the road was wholly unsuitable for heavy commercial vehicles.
Mark Bullock, of Rectory Lodge, Upton Cressett, has twice written to the council to ask it to put up suitable signs to warn of the unsuitability of the road for HGV transport, but said he had not yet received any reply.
He said: "In the light of the overturned grain truck, which only overturned because of the road, it is essential the council now acts to do something about the extreme danger of lorries using the narrow and steep lane to Upton Cressett."
Shropshire Council was not available for comment.
